Is the Carnivore Diet ‘Restrictive’?

The carnivore diet has quietly made its way into the mainstream health narrative with the help of people like Shawn Baker and Paul Saladino.

Both appeared on The Joe Rogan Podcast, and since then, many people have been dipping their toes into the carnivore diet. It has piqued the intrigue of many, particularly communities of people looking to reclaim their health.

The stories of people curing autoimmune conditions like Eczema and Crohn's Disease, and people losing weight and reversing type 2 diabetes, are endless.

That said, the diet's success has captured the attention of the masses, and seemingly healthy people have found great success with the carnivore diet.

The diet does not come with its challenges, specifically regarding lifestyle. If you choose to go down the "carnivore rabbit hole", you're likely cooking most of your meals and spending more time sourcing and preparing your food than the average person.

Also, the diet can feel "too simple" or "restrictive" for many. It's a common complaint among people choosing the diet based on curiosity instead of necessity, but our question is: does it need to be this way?

Satiety Over Calories

The core principle of the carnivore diet is satiety. A diet of saturated fats and protein makes individuals feel satisfied and nourished.

Yes, the diet is "restrictive" in some ways, and it's appropriately named an "elimination diet". Said differently, the trade-off for improving your health does come at a cost.

Getting rid of processed sugars, oils, and grains, avoiding the most toxic vegetables (or vegetables altogether), and reducing carbohydrate intake from fruits or honey (or eliminating them) can feel restrictive.

However, the diet's constraints are made easier because people tend to recapture untapped energy and mental acuity over time. 

The restriction leads to abundance!

Many people find from transitioning to a carnivore diet from a standard American diet that their energy levels dip for a certain period.

Their metabolic machine, so to speak, is looking for carbohydrates that no longer exist.

This transition period (usually about a week or two) turns many people away from the diet and leaves them feeling like a carnivore diet "can't work".

If you are a seasoned veteran on the carnivore diet or just a beginner, here are a few tips to make the carnivore diet an abundance diet:

Eat more saturated fats (particularly during the transition weeks):

Saturated fats and stored fat serve as the primary fuel source on a carnivore diet. As you transition to the diet, try adding more ghee or butter to your meals to boost the availability of fat for fuel.

Over time, your body should happily utilize fat as a primary fuel source, which many call "metabolic flexibility".

Tip: Try adding grass-fed butter to your morning bone broth to front load fats for the day. 

Moderate Zone 2 exercise

Zone 2 training keeps you within a metabolic threshold that should prevent your body from dipping into glycogen stores for fuel. The key to zone 2 training on a low-carb, carnivore diet is to teach your body how to oxidize stored body fat more efficiently.

Your body has 10,000 calories worth of stored body fat and roughly 1,000 calories of stored glycogen. If you can teach it to tap into the stored fat more efficiently, you can avoid that state of "low energy" when transitioning to a carnivore diet.

Tip: Try adding low-intensity cardio for the first week instead of running or going to the gym. Keep your HR below 70% of your max, which should teach your body to prioritize utilizing fat.

With these tips, you can quickly turn the carnivore diet into an abundance diet! After all, who only enjoys finding creative ways to cook high-quality animal protein? 

Carnivore Bar makes it easy to stick to your diet! Whenever you can't, or absolute reuse to cook (we all know the feeling), grab a Carnivore Bar for a highly nutritious guilt-free cooking-and-clean-up-free option.